This game got started with a bang, as Kiefer Sherwood got in on the forecheck to cause a turnover in the Chicago end, eventually leading to Danton Heinen scoring his first goal as a Canuck after a pretty passing play between Sherwood and Teddy Blueger. 1-0 Canucks.
This game was nearly 2-0 in a hurry, as Elias Pettersson made a beautiful touch pass to Nils Höglander at the side of the net that would have made it 2-0 early, but Petr Mrazek made a marvellous right pad save. Plays like that support the notion that Pettersson is slowly but surely beginning to get his swagger back. Not just the pass, but earlier in the shift, Pettersson battled through contact, found open ice, and made the quick play to Höglander.
… but I still wouldn’t have minded to see a shot from EP40 here. Not as badly as I would have maybe liked to see one from Teddy Blueger if Heinen didn’t convert on the opening goal:
Old friend Jason Dickinson tripped up JT Miller in the neutral zone, giving the Canucks an early power play opportunity. They made good on it, as gametime decision JT Miller scored from a tough angle after a Quinn Hughes point shot bounced hard off the end boards and came out in front. 2-0 Canucks.
Ryan Donato pulled the Hawks within one after finding some soft ice in the slot after a one-handed feed from Jason Dickinson to make it 2-1. There were multiple errors on this play, starting with the Myers-Soucy pairing:
Danton Heinen scored shortly after following a nice play from Kiefer Sherwood to get the puck back to the point to Filip Hronek, who blasted a shot wide of the Canucks’ net, right to Sherwood’s stick for the deflection to make it 3-1.
The Hawks challenged the play for delay of game, which was silly, because Kiefer Sherwood did the ol’ Cale Makar on the zone entry, where he tagged up before touching the puck again at the blue line. The challenge was unsuccessful, giving the Canucks another power play. The highlight of the power play was Danton Heinen nearly scoring a first period hat trick, which would have just been so funny.
Taylor Hall pulled Chicago within one after Tyler Myers had trouble settling a bouncing puck, giving Hall far too much time and space in the slot to make it 3-2.
Quinn Hughes let go of a point shot into traffic that ended with Elias Pettersson shovelling the puck over to Conor Garland, who made it 4-2 Canucks at the end of 20 minutes.
The second period had less than six goals, meaning it was a snooze fest not worth writing or reading about. Carson Soucy took a tripping penalty that gave Chicago a power play, but the Canucks managed to not let the puck get to Connor Bedard for very long, so they managed to kill it off relatively easily. The Blackhawks got another power play, and while Bedard came close to scoring, the Canucks killed that one off too.
In all seriousness, Kevin Lankinen was rock solid all night long, but made some key saves in the second to preserve the Canucks’ two-goal lead heading into the third.
In the third period, Lankinen was up to his old tricks again:
Jake DeBrusk took a hooking penalty, and again, the Canucks were good at limiting Bedard’s time and space, so the penalty kill remained perfect on the night.
Later, Elias Pettersson did his dekes and drew a tripping penalty. ANOTHER SIGN?! On the ensuing power play, JT Miller made it look far too easy when he snapped a hard pass at Brock Boeser in the high slot, who also made it look far too easy by deflecting the pass past Mrazek to make it 5-2 Canucks.
Pius Suter got in on the fun 20 seconds later, making it 6-2 in the blink of an eye.
Teddy Blueger took a penalty late, then Filip Hronek took a penalty shortly after, which made it a 5-on-3, which made it harder to kill the penalty off. Kevin Lankinen is human, we’re told. 6-3.
The Canucks killed off the remaining 55 seconds of the Hronek penalty, and that was all she wrote for this one. 6-3 final.
With their win tonight, the Canucks now have eight points through six games. This puts them on a 109-point pace, the same number of points they tallied last season en route to winning the Pacific Division.
Some other takeaways from tonight:
-Erik Brannstrom shouldn’t be taken out of the Canucks’ lineup for a long, long time. His passing and skating ability were once again noticeable tonight after a strong showing in Philadelphia on Saturday. He hit the crossbar in the first period tonight as well.
-Another rough night for Carson Soucy and, in turn, the Soucy-Myers pairing. The duo was so good last season and into the playoffs at matching up against top competition, but they just haven’t looked like they’re on the same page this season.
-The last time the Canucks dominated a first period against a supposed bottom feeder team, they blew a three goal lead to the Calgary Flames twice on opening night. Nice to see them close this one out.
-10 hits for Kiefer Sherwood tonight. My word.
-That’s a three game winning streak!
-More like KeVezina Lankinen.
What are your thoughts on tonight’s game?
